Mushrooms are valuable health food—low in calories, high in vegetable proteins, chitin, iron, zinc, fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins & minerals. Mushrooms also have a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. Their legendary effects on promoting good health and vitality and increasing a body's adaptive abilities have been supported by Western medicine as well. They are an excellent source of selenium, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, copper, niacin, potassium and phosphorous. Selenium is needed for the proper function of the antioxidant system, which works to reduce the levels of damaging free radicals in the body. Selenium is a necessary cofactor of one of the body's most important internally produced antioxidants, glutathione peroxidase, and also works with Vitamin E in numerous vital antioxidant systems throughout the body.
Mushrooms are also the only vegetable or fruit which contains Vitamin D, naturally. All other natural food sources of Vitamin D are of animal, poultry or seafood origin. Also, some foods, such as milk, orange juice and cereals may be fortified with Vitamin D, up to 100 IU.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement. It is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger Vitamin D synthesis. So one must either ingest Vitamin D or sit in the sun and soak up UV rays, so that it may be synthesized endogenously. The risks of sun exposure have gained much attention lately, and the association of sun exposure with Pre-cancerous (actinic keratosis) and cancerous (basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma) skin lesions—caused by loss of the skin's immune function, fine and coarse wrinkling of the skin, freckles, discoloration of the skin, and Elastosis—the destruction of the elastic tissue causing lines and wrinkles is well documented. Thus as people become more sensitive to the dangers of UV exposure, other dietary sources of Vitamin D become increasingly important for maintaining health.
Vitamin D is essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Without sufficient Vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Vitamin D sufficiency prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with calcium, Vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis.
Vitamin D has other roles in human health, including modulation of neuromuscular and immune function and reduction of inflammation. Many genes encoding proteins that regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis are modulated in part by Vitamin D. Many laboratory-cultured human cells have Vitamin D receptors and some convert 25(OH)D to 1.25(OH)2D. It remains to be determined whether cells with Vitamin D receptors in the intact human carry out this conversion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a food product for use in foods and beverages which is high in nutritional values, particularly Vitamin D.
It is another object of the invention to provide methods for enhancing the Vitamin D content of mushrooms.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide such nutritionally enhanced mushrooms and filamentous fungi without any deleterious affects on the mushrooms appearance.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the invention which follows.